Justice Committee

JUSTICE COMMITTEE: GOVERNMENT STILL ON COURSE FOR “TITANIC” PRISON POPULATION

Chair of the Commons Justice Committee Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith MP said:

“We welcome today’s announcement that the Government is abandoning plans for the establishment of “Titan” prisons. We have repeatedly said that the Government’s focus on huge public investment in building more prison places in a few “mega-prisons” is a risky strategy, based on a flimsy evidence base.

“However, we are concerned that today’s proposals demonstrate that this Government is still committed to achieving the highest prison population in western Europe.

“These alternative proposals are still based on massive expansion of prison places predicted to cost an estimated additional £490 million per year just to run, on top of the capital costs to build. Evidence to our current inquiry into Justice Reinvestment suggests that there is a lot of support for this money being spent on alternatives to prison that have greater potential to reduce crime and re-offending.”